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A Generation of Serfs
On October 25, 1415, Henry V of England laid some serious hurt on the French at the Battle of Agincourt at Pas-de-Calais, France. Part of the success of this campaign was due to Henry’s use of the longbow, but part of it also goes to the creative use of military indentures. These legal contracts required all the English captains to provide specified amounts of men, material and time to the King’s cause. An indenture was a document, written in duplicate and then torn along a jagged line, like little teeth ( dents ), in the paper. One portion of the contract was in possession of each party and when the required conditions and period of service were fulfilled, the parts reunited, and the debt was considered paid. Many of the people who first came to this country from England came as indentured servants, worked off their debt and became the backbone of the country. Today we are creating a nation not of indentured servants, someone with a carefully
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